Grade One News

1

• Reading
• In Reading Workshop students are learning how to
  retell stories to demonstrate their understanding
  and comprehension skills.
• A good retelling includes
• the sequence of events
• the characters
• the setting
• the problem and solution
• some of the language and vocabulary from the
  story
• You can help your child by asking him/her to
  orally retell the stories read at home or school.

Grade One News February 2008
Math This month first grade students will be
introduced to concepts involving place value, how
much more, solving number problems using less
than and more than symbols, writing number
stories, learning fact families and matching
digital notation with the analog time.
Measurement, money, and find the rule will also
be reviewed. First graders will continue to work
on automatic recall of basic addition facts.
Please check the Everyday Math family letter your
childs teacher has sent to you for more
information.
2

• Writing
• Writers workshop is happening in all the
  classrooms in grade one. The children have made
  great progress as writers since the beginning of
  the year.
• You can help by talking with your child about the
  events that are happening in your family.
• Small events make great topics cooking with mom
  or dad, losing a shoe,
• walking the dog
• Vacation times are an ideal time to bring up Oh
  wouldnt that be a fun
• event to write about at school. Encourage
  your child to experience the
• vacation instead of playing with a Gameboy, PSP
  or Playstation games all
• through it!
• While reading bedtime stories discuss interesting
  and colorful words in the
• text.

3

• Topic Fairy Tales
• In the unit Once Upon a Time, students are
  introduced to classic fairytales. Students will
  identify the elements of fairytales and be able
  to draw comparisons between the tales. Here are
  some elements of fairytales
• often begin with Once upon a time
• often contain magic
• often have royal characters such as kings and
  queens
• usually have heroes/heroines and villains
• have lessons or morals
• have happy endings so that the characters live
  happily ever after
• Once Upon a Time has a strong language focus that
  will help students in the writing of their own
  exciting stories!

4
First grade began our celebration of Chinese New
Year with a dumpling feast on February 1st. We
have been busy making lanterns to decorate the
hall for Lantern Festival which marks the end of
Chinese New Year on February 21st. We have all
been enjoying books from the Rotten Ralph series
written by Jack Gantos. Jack Gantos will be
visiting TAS in February. The grade one students
will have the opportunity to meet with him on
Wednesday, February 20th. There will also be a
book signing that afternoon from 230-315 in the
school lobby. Some of his books are for sale in
the PTA book store.
Important Dates February February 1 Dumplings
for Lunch February 4 8 Chinese New Year
Holiday No School February 20 Author Jack
Gantos Family Night 630 -730 pm February 22
Author Jack Gantos Book Signing 230 - 400
pm February 28 Grades K1 Field Day 825 -1045
am